Appealing to the Auditory Learner Using Technology - Resources and Notes: Presenter - Lillian Geltz

The focus of this room is using audio in the English Classroom.

Summary of 21st Century Skills:

• Engage kids
• Develop depth
• Nurture critical thinking
• Create authenticity
• Foster creativity
• Integrate technology

"No matter how long you go, you can always get better. The beauty of the profession is that it is constantly changing."

Goals in the English Classroom

Read, write, speak, and listen. These are the goals that we want our kids to master in our classrooms. Lillian has expressed she feels she has done well with reading and writing, so how do you get speaking and listening in there?

You have to trust the kids (it's tough, but that's where it needs to get for this to be completely effective). The older (and more mature) the kids are, the more effective it will be. As kids see how these 21st Century Skills improve their learning (and enjoy it more), they will want to earn that trust.

Up until this point, many students have learned from someone in charge (teacher, coach, etc.) who has shared the information through auditory means. If we cut the kids loose to discover on their own, how do we reach the kids that have always learned by listening to their teacher?

Lesson

Content: Rome, rhetoric, and Cicero
Logos, ethos, pathos. Talking about rhetoric and good speeches, it was imperative to have a good class discussion. Who are the great speakers today? What makes a great speaker? Students identified the ideas of charisma, enthusiasm, rapport, etc. What else goes into it? Who writes the speeches? The nice thing about a lesson like this is that it gives kids a voice.

Task

Create a speech about a speech. Conduct research on rhetoric. Listen to speeches, choose one, analyze, and apply. (Restricted MLK "I Have A Dream" due to familiarity.) Create/write a speech about the speech. Talk about logos, ethos, pathos. It is required to include 3 other techniques (learned from rhetoric search), and optional to include graphics and music. Looking at the optionals gets a student to consider appropriateness, copyright, and ethics (which is a great discussion, as well). Students are used to sharing information and music without regard to copyright. How do we combat this practice? Now, give the students a chance to listen to the speeches. Evaluate and provide feedback. When recording the speeches, you need to cut kids loose out into the hallway so they're not recording each other, but this is where that trust issue comes in.

Expanding Upon the Lesson

(Keynote slideshow coming soon)
The goal is still to create quality content, not to work with technology. The technology is there to supplement the content, but it is not THE content. Preview your material ahead of time, and provide some for the kids. If you give them some great resources, they may surprise you and supplement with other great sites.

Reflection

Working with technology takes great planning, thinking about how things will work ahead of time and testing it out. You can't just sit down in class and say, "Let's just do it!" There need to be guidelines and limits to the process. It's okay to say, "We're going to end now." When turning in the files, have them submit the file with the name of the speech, not the creators name. That way, the students listen to the speeches that sound interesting.

Slideshow